Life as a Yowler

We’ve spent the last several days in California. After Montana, we drove through a brand new state(for us), Oregon. We drove through some of the worst wind/sand/dust we’ve ever driven through. We couldn’t believe how windy it was. We were so thankful for the diesel motor home or we never would have made it. We stopped for one night in Reno, Nevada. Brandon has been doing 1-3 store trainings each day. After Reno, we drove to California. We got stopped before entering the state at the agriculture check. This time, we at least knew it was coming. We had a produce party and ate most of our produce beforehand. We also made sure the little gems hadn’t collected any sticks or bugs under the motor home. They check under the RV for those things. They let us right through this time, without taking any of our produce.

We visited Lake Tahoe. We had been there twice before, but this time we went to South Tahoe. We went to the Tahoe National Forest. We got to do some hiking. The view was incredible.

Aunt Bethany has been taking all kinds of family pictures for us, since she’s been with us. She has been so helpful. Brandon and I have gone on two dates since she’s been here. She takes care of the kids. Last night she even bathed them all.

We gathered several pinecones. The last time we were at Lake Tahoe, we grabbed some pinecones but not enough for the entire family. This time we got one for everyone. We are going to spray paint them.

Isla refuses to be left out of the pinecone gathering fun.

Yesterday, during Brandon’s store training, Bethany and I took the kids to tour the Jelly Belly Factory in Sacramento. They offer a free tour that we’ve done once before.

Look at all those jelly beans!

I love all the windows in the factory. The kids are able to look down and watch the jelly beans being made.

There is a such thing as jelly bean art. We saw all kinds of jelly bean art pictures.

Each kid picked out a little souvenir at the gift shop after touring the factory. Isla went right away to the little handbags. She kept changing her mind between pink and purple. Finally she said “ok purple.” She marched over to the checkout counter, like the little diva she is with her purple purse.

Today for school, in place of Joah’s handwriting book, I asked him to write me a 10 sentence summary of his experience at Jelly Belly. This is what he handed me. Prayers are welcome!

Another quick funny story….last night Caed peed his pants at 3am. I didn’t want to wake the entire household. So I felt around in the dark for a new pair of pants. He changed quietly and quickly and went right back to sleep. This morning I woke up to see this shirt wrapped around his butt. That’s my mom fail of last night!

Now we are on to Los Angeles. Brandon had a store training today, then we drove 6.5 hours. We are heading into some standstill traffic I’m afraid. GPS is warning us of this crazy LA traffic. It’s going to take us an hour to drive 25 miles. 😬 Disneyland is coming, which has me more excited than the kids. Brandon makes fun of my childhood excitement each time we go. It should go as usual…..I will push to meet characters and Brandon will push to ride every ride in the park. We will do a combination of both and have a great time!